


we were together

by lauraxtennant



Series: Tentoo/Rose Collection [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-05
Updated: 2015-10-05
Packaged: 2018-04-25 00:03:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4939033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lauraxtennant/pseuds/lauraxtennant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and Rose reflect on togetherness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we were together

Rose closed the door softly and crept across the room, before slipping into bed next to the sleeping Doctor as quietly as she could. He sensed her presence regardless, and rolled over, throwing an arm around her to draw her close.

“Hello,” he murmured, his eyes drifting open.

“Hello.” She smiled, tucking her hand under the covers to rest on his waist.

“All sorted?”

“Yep. Arrived right on time.”

“Good.”

They lay there quietly for a little while, staring at each other from their pillows as the early morning light seeped into the room through the round windows.

His eyes crinkled at the corners. “We need to invest in some curtains, for those.”

Sliding her leg in between his, enjoying how warm he was from sleep, Rose hummed. “Oh-ho, the domestic life for me.”

“Pffft. Domestic? Have you looked out the window, lately? Rose Tyler, we are currently inhabiting a zeppelin.”

“Only for three months.” She stroked her fingers along his side, lowering her gaze from his, both to admire the goosebumps she was creating on his skin and to avoid the intensity of his eyes. “Don’t you ever feel…”

“What?” he asked, and she heard the scratchy tone in his voice. Croaky from sleep, she hoped, rather than hurt.

“I dunno.” She met his eyes again. “When we had that fight last week, I thought - well. Thought it might scare you, a bit.”

“Rose. We fought on the TARDIS all the time.”

“Yeah, but that was before we were together.”

He went rigid, apart from his eyebrows, which frowned at her deeply. “Before we - ?” He inhaled sharply, and rolled onto his back, dislodging them both from their embrace.

“Well, yeah,” Rose reasoned, propping herself up on her elbow.

Staring firmly at the ceiling, the Doctor replied, “I sort of assumed that we were, well.” She watched him swallow. “That we were already together. Before.” He tilted his head to look at her. “On the TARDIS.”

Rose squinted at him. “How can it only be now that we’re realising we weren’t on the same page, about that?”

“I don’t know,” he said shortly, then sat up straight. “How can you not have thought we were - ?”

“Because you never said!”

“Didn’t think it needed saying. Thought we slipped right into it with perfect, natural, silent agreement!”

“But, Doctor - it’s different, now. You know it is. _We’re_ different, the way we are with each other now, compared to how we were then. How can you say it’s the same? It’s not.”

“It’s not the same, maybe, but it’s still - we were still - ” He broke off, and looked at her helplessly. “Were we really not together, in your mind?”

“I think we were only together in yours, Doctor,” Rose said calmly.

He gaped at her, then swung his legs over the side of the bed, looking as though he were getting up in a huff.

She got to her knees quickly, heaving a sigh, and wrapped her arms around his neck from behind, halting him. “Don’t get upset. Look, I’m sorry, yeah? I just - I _wanted_ us to be together, of course I did. I wanted it so much. But you never said to me that that’s how you thought of us. Never.”

The Doctor sniffed, but his hands came up to rest over hers where they dangling above his collarbone. “Just because we didn’t have sex, then - ”

“Shhh,” she murmured, kissing the back of his neck. “You know that’s not what I mean. I know that sex isn’t everything that makes people a couple, for god’s sake. I knew that wasn’t gonna be part of - or at least, I thought it wasn’t. And I still told you I’d be with you forever, didn’t I?”

“Exactly!” he said, twisting rapidly in her hold, wrapping his arm around her waist to steady her as she toppled. “I thought that meant…”

She gave him a look. “You didn’t say anything. That’s the difference between then and now, Doctor. Not just the sex, or sharing the same bed. We talk now. There’s constantly things we say that mean we’re together. We didn’t have any of that, then.”

He wrapped his other arm around her, too, and held her tight. “But you knew,” he said quickly, brows drawn together in concern, “You knew how much I loved you. Didn’t you?”

“I knew that’s what I hoped,” she said, offering him a sheepish smile. His eyes still looked sad so she persisted, “Doctor, you were this amazing, important man, a flippin’ king of the universe! And okay, so you were also the biggest dork ever, with a cute smile and a cute bum, but you have no idea how scary it was to be in love with someone like you.”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “You think I have a cute bum?”

“You know you do.”

He preened for a moment, then smiled. “I was scared too, you know.”

“How come?”

“Holding this hand,” he said, entwining their fingers as he spoke, “The way you made me laugh. How you made me feel. It was all so…new.” He let out a whoosh of breath. “Of course I was scared.”

“And now?”

He tugged on her hand, standing and bringing her up with him, walking them over to the small windows of their bedroom. He stood her in front of him and hugged her from behind, resting his chin against the side of her head as they stared out over the city of New Berlin. “There’s a whole world out there. Me and you, Rose - and, admittedly, the crushing weight of our mortality -” He chuckled when she glanced up at him with a scowl and kissed her temple. “Just kidding. To answer your question, yeah, still a bit scared. But mostly just excited.”

Rose’s heart settled. “Doctor,” she whispered, eyes focussed on the view again.

“Mmm?”

“How long are you gonna stay with me?” she asked, and she knew he’d hear the grin in her voice.

She shivered when he kissed the shell of her ear, and then he answered easily, swiftly - tenderly. “Forever.”


End file.
